The Lateef Fund's three stockpickers say the market feels much more constructive than it has in years. Why they like Qualcomm, Stanley Black & Decker and Robert Half.

Stock picking, plain and simple. And successful. That's what attracts investors -- individuals, private-wealth managers, and endowments -- to Lateef Investment Management, a $4.5 billion money-management firm in Greenbrae, Calif., a small Marin County town just north of San Francisco. Three portfolio managers, Quoc Tran, James Tarkenton, and Matthew Sauer, scour and sift for underappreciated and mispriced blue-chip companies with strong balance sheets, strong business models, high free-cash flows, and attractive returns on capital. The trio is steeped in the art of value investing, having learned it from some of the...